Pin ticket



Jan. 5, 1932. c FLOOD 1,839,543

PIN TICKET Filed Jan. 16, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet; l

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PIN TICKET Filed Jan. 16, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 j-we7zwr' 6 617? ZJ ZOOZ Patented Jan. 5, 1932 warren era-res PATENT OFFICE CARL A. FLOOD, or FRAM INGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T DENNISON MANU- FACTURING COMPANY, or FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION or MASSACHUSETTS rm TICKET Application filed January 16, 1929. Serial No. 332,815.

proved pin ticket of simple and inexpensive construction which may be readily and securely affixed to the desired article against casual disengagement yet which may be easily 7 removed by hand from the material, and

which, when affixed or when so removed, will not damage the material or cause discomfort or injury to a. person handling the ticket; and the provision of fastening means for attaching the ticket to the merchandise, preferably by machine before the goods are placed on sale or display, whereby the removal of the ticket results in deformation of the fastening means, and also preferably in the defacement of the ticket itself, so that the removed ticket can not be replaced or substitutedby hand. More specifically, the principal purposes of the invention are tov provide a pin ticket and a wire attaching staple, the ends of the staple passing through the material and through and beyond a tag or patch, which may be the ticket itself, and being then bent rearwardly so that the points of the staple meet the outer face of said patch endwise, although not necessarily at right angles; and to provide a weakened portion in one of said parts, preferably in the ticket,-whereby the ticket may be detached without touching the wire or injuring the. material.

Theinvention is susceptible of embodiment in various forms of tickets, several of which are shown for the purpose ofillustration in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a recommended construction of the improved device, showing the ticket aiiixed to a piece of fabric material;

F igJEZ is an enlarged section taken on the line 22 of Fig. 1; i

Fig. 3 is a rear view of the ticket shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. ,4 is a perspective view illustrating the position of the parts after one half of the ticket has been detached; v

Figs. 5 to 12 are views similar to Fig. 1 showing modified forms of tickets;

Fig. 13 is a rear view of the Structure shown in Fig. 12; p p v Fig. 14 is a rear view of another modification;

Figs. 15 and 16 are plan and sectional views of a further modification;

Figs. 17 and 1-8 are enlarged sections taken on lines l717 and 18-48 of Figsfll and 10 respectively Fig. 19 is a vertical section through a suggested form of stapling mechanism useful.

in affixing the ticket to the fabric, showing somewhat diagrammatically the position of the parts as the ends of the staple are being forced through the fabricand ticket;

Fig. 20 is a similar view showing the ticket secured to the material; and

Figs. '21 and 22 are sections taken on the lines 21 21 and 2222 of Figs. 19 and 21 7 respectively.

In the preferred embodiment illustrated in Figs. 1 to 4, the ticket 81, formed in an appropriate shape of cardboard or other suitable material, is affixed fiatwise upon the fabric strip 32 by means of a wire staple 33 having its ends or prongs 34, passed through the maand above the ticket preferably perpendicular thereto, and then curved outwardly and rearwardly so that the tips of the prongs meet the outer face of the ticket, preferably at right-angles, as shown in Fig. 2; The

ticket is accordingly afiixed securely to the fabric without damage to the material and the prong ends cannot catch uponthe fingers of a person handling the ticket or material or upon other articles.

An important feature of the improved pin ticket is the ease with which the ticket may under certain conditions be detached from the material without touching the wire with the hands or injuring the fabric. Owing to .80 terial from its under side, thence through prongs. This operation is greatly facilitated by weakening the ticket along a planeextending between the staple prongs, whereby the thereby ticket may be divided by bending and tearing off a portion thereof and simultaneously substantiallystraightening one prong of the staple. v

Accordingly the ticket 31 is preferably scored or otherwise weakened asalong the line 35 on its bottom side (Fig. 3), so that one-half of the ticket may readily be bent at the weakened line and detached by hand (preferably While the other half is being pressed against the material by the fingers) substantially straightening the staple prong, as indicated at 36, Fig. 4. The remaining half of the ticket may then be removed from the fabric without damage thereto by gently drawing the fabric ofi the substantially straightened end of the staple which is affixed to said remaining half (Fig. 4). The flexible material will yield sufficiently so that it may be pulled over the bends of the U-shaped staple without appreciably enlarging the staple holes in the fabric or otherwise injuring the material. It is also possible to divide the ticket and substantially straighten one of itsprongs by grasping the ticket at opposite sides of the weakened line and tearing the ticket apart alon the plane of weakness. This method usually results in deforming but one of the bent ends 34 (e. g. the weaker of the two) the other prongs remaining attached to one of the ticket portions produced by the division; but in case both portions of the ticket are removed from the staple, substantially to straighten both prongs thereof, the staple may obviously be detached from the cloth by grasping the central portion of the staple and pulling it away from the material. Furthermore, in certain instances, a portion of the ticket may be bent away from the fabric and slipped off one of the prongs which is substantially straightened by the bending movement, without physically separating the bent portion from the remainder of the ticket; the fabric being then drawn off the free prong as aforesaid.

The operation ofremoving the ticket both defaces the ticket and deforms the staple; hence it is impossible to restore the pin ticket or reaffix the ticket to the goods by the same or other fastening means without manifesting the substitution. This feature not only obviates the possibility of exchanging tickets on goods displayed for sale, but also ensures that articles delivered to customers on approval will be returned unused, if found unsatisfactory.

Obviously the weakened portion of the ticket may be formed in various ways,such as by score lines on either side of the ticket or slits extending between the staple ends. For example, in Fig. 5 the ticket is scored part way across its'outer face at 37; in Figs. 6 and. 7 slits 38 and 39 are cut through the ticketfrom one edge, and in the latter view the ticket is also scored at 40 to provide a main body portion 41 which is separable from the attached tabs 42; in Fig. 8 the ticket is scored at 43 as in Fig. l and has two staples straddling the scored line; and in Fig. 9 the scoring 44 divides the ticket into a main body portion-45 and a projecting tab portion 46. In each of these modifications the staple may be formed and attached in the same manner as in Fig. 1. Obviously the score line or slit need not extend to either edge of the ticket, but may terminate in the ticket body; in

which case the staple may straddle the weak ened line in the central portion of the ticket.

As illustrative of the provision of a weakened staple instead of a weakened ticket, for permitting ready detachment of the ticket, Fig. 14 showsa wire staple 47 having a can tral portion 48 of less thickness than the remainder of the staple, so that thestaple will quickly break at the weakened regions when the ticket is bent and pulled off. Other means of weakening the wire or the ticket will be apparent, and the illustrative modifications are not intended to limit the invention in this respect.

Although the fastening means above described permit the employment of a singleply, unitary ticket, the ticket may be doubled upon itself or may comprise two or more superposed portions as shown in Figs. 10 to 18. In Figs. 10 and 18, a separate pull tab 49 is secured by the staple ends upon the outer face of the ticket; in Figs. 11 and 17, a thin paper ticket 50 has a reinforcement 51 of heavier stock secured upon its upper margin by the staple 33, the reinforcement being scored at 52; in Figs. 12 and 13 a protecting patch 53 is placed on the opposite side of the material. from the ticket 54, and the ends 34 of the staple 33 are first passed through the ticket 54 then through the fabric 32 and then through the patch 53 upon the outer face of which the tips of the prongs are bent; and in Figs. '15 and 16 the upper portion 55 of the ticket 56 is folded over and secured by the staple ends 34. I

The ticket is preferably aflixed to the goods by a suitable stapling machine, and illustrative views of certain parts of a recommended mechanism are shown in Figs. 19 to 22. The wire may be fed to the stapling mechanism and out off in suitable lengths by hand or by appropriate machinery and is opposed longitudinal guide slots 58 for the upwardly extending wire arms 59, operating in conjunction with the forming tongue 60 of an angularly reciprocating member (not shown), the tongue being moved outwardly of member 57 after the wire has been bent as shown in Fig. 19. A plunger 61, having a groove 62 in its upper face to receive the central portion 63 of the wire, reciprocates vertically through the yoke member 57 The fabric 32 and ticket 81 are positioned upon the upper ends of the yoke 57 and the bottom face of a vertically movable die member ea presses upon the ticket 31, as shown in Fig. 19. Said die face has spaced semicylindrical recesses 65 disposed above the ends of the wire arms 59 and pins 66 are mounted axially in said recesses in parallel relation. Accordingly when the plunger 61 is forced upwardly the points of the wire staple arms 59 are carried through the fabric 32 and ticket 31, to be received within the forming recesses 65 and curved around the pins 66, ultimately to meet the upper face of the tickets end-wise as shown in Fig. 20. After the machine parts are separated the attached pin ticket may be released from the die member by sliding the looped ends 34 of the staple off the free ends of the pins 66.

A staple fastened as above described has its respective ends bent outwardly of each other in the same plane, but it is obvious that the points may be turned toward each other, or that both points may bend in the same direction or in spaced parallel planes, and also that the bend need not necessarily be precisely curvilinear in shape. However, if the ends be bent toward eachother the resulting loops should not overlap since this would interfere with the removal of the ticket (or a part of the ticket) by bending the ticket along a line extending transversely of the staple.

The improved pin ticket may be printed or otherwise marked in any desired manner to display the merchants name and other informative notations, and in case the ticket is weakened as above recommended the score lines or slots may be so located that certain notations will be completely preserved on a portion of the ticket when the latter is" torn apart for removal. It will be understood that this invention is not intended to be limited to the precise details of construction herein illustrated and described, except as the invention is defined in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A pin ticket comprising a ticket member applied against a piece of material and a staple member having its ends passed through the material and the ticket and bent over onto the ticket, one of said members being weakened in a plane intersecting the staple member.

2. A pin ticket comprising a ticket applied :0 a piece of material and a staple having its ends passed through the'ymaterial and the ticket and bent over onto the face of the ticket, the ticketbeing weakened in a plane passingfbetween said, staple ends.

A pin ticket comprising a ticket applied to a piece of material and a wire staple having its prongs passed through the material, through the ticket and beyond its outer face, and then bent rearwardly until the tips of the ends substantially meet the ticket, the ticket being weakened in a plane extending between said bent ends.

4. A pin tick-ct comprising a ticket applied against one side of the material to which it is attached, and a wire staple having its prongs passed through the material from its opposite side and then through the ticket and be yond its outer face approximately perpendicular thereto, the ends of the prongs being bent rearwardly until the tips of the ends substantially meet said ticket face, the ticket being scored on one side in aplane extending between said bent ends.

5. A pin ticket comprising a ticket applied against one side of the material to which it is attached, and a wire staple having its prongs passed through the material from its opposite side and then through the ticket and beyond its outer face in a direction approximately perpendicular to the ticket, the ends of the prongs being'curved rearwardly to-' ward the said ticket face and the tips meeting the said surface endwise and being spaced from each other, one face of the ticket being scored in a plane extending between said spaced tips.

6. A pin ticket comprising a ticket applied against one side of the material to which it is attached, and a wire staple having its prongs passed through the material from its'opposite side and then through the ticket and beyond its outer face, the ends of the prongs being curved over so that their tips meet said outer face endwise to form upstanding loops spaced-apart lengthwise of the staple.

7. A pin ticket comprising a ticket applied against one side of the material to which it is attached, and a wire staple having its prongs passed through the material from its opposite side and then through the ticket and beyond its outer face, the ends of the prongs being curved over, away fro-1n each other, so that their tips meet said outer face at a substantial angle to form upstanding loops spaced from each other in the same plane.

8. Fastening means for removably attaching a ticket to one side of a piece of material, comprising a wire staple having its prongs passed through the material from its opposite side and then through the ticket and beyond its outer face, the ends of the prongs being curved over in opposite directions until their tips substantially meet said ticket face, thereby forming upstanding, spaced apart loops.

9. Fastening means forremovably attaching aticket to a piece of material, comprising a patch, a Wire staple having its prongs passed through the ticket and material and ultimately through the patch and beyond its outer. face, the ends of the prongs being curved over in opposite directions until their tips substantially meet said patch face, thereby forming upstanding, spaced'apart loops. Signed by'lne at Framingham, Massachusetts, this 10th day of January, 1929.

CARL A. FLOOD. 

